Prof. Debra Green, chair of the Association of Legal Writing Directors' website committee, has announced the opening of ALWD's redesigned, updated, and reconfigured website. In addition to familiar content, the website is set to provide two additional new features: a “forums” link for members and a “search” function.

Prof. Terry Godwin Phelps of American University, Washington College of Law has announced that school's hosting of a conference titled “How Legal Rhetoric Shapes the Law,” scheduled for Friday, November 2, 2007. The keynote address will be delivered by James Boyd White. To register, go to http://www.wcl.american.edu/secle/cle_form.cfm. There is no charge to attend.

The University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law is seeking applications for a nine-month appointment as a Visiting Assistant Legal Writing Professor for the 2008-2009 academic year. For information about the school's Legal Research and Writing program, contact Melody Daily, Clinical Professor of Law, and Director of Legal Research and Writing, MU School of Law, 203 Hulston Hall, Columbia, MO 65211. To apply, send a cover letter, resume, writing sample, and list of three references (with their contact information) by the October 1, 2007, deadline to Associate Dean Thom Lambert, Chair, Faculty Appointments Committee, University of Missouri–Columbia School of Law, 231 Hulston Hall, Columbia, MO 65211-4300.

The John Marshall Law School-Chicago invites entry-level and experienced faculty to apply for possible tenure-track, long-term contract, or visiting faculty appointments beginning the 2008-09 academic year, in several subject matter areas, including lawyering skills. Applicants should e-mail or send a letter of application and resume by October 10, 2007 to Professor Mark E. Wojcik, Chair, Selection and Appointments Committee, The John Marshall Law School, 315 South Plymouth Court, Chicago, IL 60604.

The University of North Dakota School of Law seeks applications for for the position of tenure-track Assistant Professor of Law to teach in the school's Lawyering Skills program beginning in August 2008. Applicants should mail a cover letter, resume, the names of three references, and a writing sample to Kathryn R. L. Rand, Associate Dean, University of North Dakota School of Law, 215 Centennial Drive, Mail Stop 9003, Grand Forks, ND 58202. Questions regarding the position can be directed to Kirsten Dauphinais, Director of Lawyering Skills.

Stetson University College of Law has announced an opening for the position of Assistant Professor of Legal Skills, a position with a three-year renewable contract. To apply, send a cover letter and current curriculum vitae by September 10 to Professors Michael Allen and Timothy Kaye, Co-Chairs, Faculty Appointments Committee, Stetson University College of Law, 1401 61st Street South, Gulfport, FL 33707. Most initial screening interviews will be conducted during the AALS 2007 Faculty Recruitment Conference in Washington, DC on October 25-28, 2007. For more information about the position, contact Professor Kirsten Davis, Director of Legal Research and Writing (727-562-7877).

This year's winner of the Thomas Blackwell Award is Professor Diana Pratt. The award recognizes those who have made an outstanding contribution to improve the field of legal writing by demonstrating

the ability to nuture and motivate students to excellence;

the willingness to help other Legal Writing Educators improve their teaching skills or their Legal Writing Programs; and

the ability to create and integrate new ideas for teaching and motivating Legal Writing educators and students.

Professor Pratt will be honored at a joint ALWD and LWI reception at the AALS conference on Thursday, January 3, 2008 from 6:30-8:30at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers, in the Imperial Ballroom East.

"The price of clarity, of course, is that the clearer the document the more obvious its substantive deficiencies. For the lazy or dull, this price may be too high." Reed Dickerson, Professor of Law, Indiana University; taken from the Plain Language website.

Everything you might possibly need to know about the upcoming Global Legal Skills Conference III is now easy to find on its website, including how submit a proposal. And the information is available in both English & Espanol.

Have you registered yet? It's almost here. The Central Region LRW/Lawyering Skills Conference will be held October 5-6, 2007, at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. Registration is free!!!! All you will have are your travel expenses.

Our program committee, headed by Alison Julien of Marquette, has done a great job of organizing an outstanding program for our conference. Our plenary speaker will be the Honorable Duane Benton of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, a dedicated proponent of legal writing.

Our conference hotel is the Embassy Suites on the Country Club Plaza, just north of the law school. Be sure to ask for the Central Legal Writing Conference rate. Our block of hotel rooms will be freed up on September 5th. If you have any trouble with your hotel reservations, please let me know right away. We will be providing shuttle service from the hotel to the law school thanks to Aspen. Our reception and lunch will be hosted by LexisNexis and Westlaw. Just a reminder that presenters need to register, too. That way we'll be able to have the right count for meals/breaks.

Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, California, seeks applicants for a tenure-track position in its legal writing program beginning in Fall 2008. To apply, mail or e-mail a cover letter and resume to Anders Kaye, Chair, Faculty Appointments Committee, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, 2121 San Diego Avenue, San Diego, CA 92110.

The AALS Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research Section Poster Committee advises that September 1 is the deadline for poster submissions for the upcoming AALS conference. For information about submission requirements, go to this page on the AALS website. To see examples of AALS posters for the LWRR section, go here. For some great tips on putting together a poster presentation, see Nancy Soonpaa's article.

"Please mark your calendars for the regional conference of the New England Consortium of Legal Writing Teachers (NECLWT), to be held on Friday, December 7, 2007 at the Vermont Law School.Registration starts at 9am, the first of the day's two rounds of concurrent panels and workshops begins at 10:30am, and the last round of panels concludes at 3:15pm, followed by a closing reception.

"The luncheon will feature Professor Chris Jernstedt,Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College and Director of the college's Center for Educational Outcomes.He specializes in human learning, educational technology, and evaluation research, and frequently lectures about learning and teaching, potentials of the human mind, educational technology, and institutional and program assessment and development."

Have any news for the AALS section newsletter? Here's how to get it to the right person:

What kinds of news might I submit?

1. News and Accomplishments: If you have personally changed schools or received a promotion (title or contract changes) since the last newsletter, please e-mail rcrosker@umich.edu. If your news is a promotion or status change, please be as specific as possible, for example, the nature of the promotion, the type of status change, etc. Please also send information about any advances your school's program has made since the winter/spring newsletter was published.

2. Publications. If you have published an article or book since the last newsletter, please send me the name of the article or book as well as its citation.

3. Q and A: There are plans for a Q & A page in the newsletter. Its success is up to you. Here's the question:

What unique or interesting ways have you found to engage students in learning what they might otherwise perceive to be a dry skill or topic (small-scale organization or research, for example)?

Please email your answer to this question to rcrosker@umich.edu. Space permitting, it will be published. Charts and diagrams are welcome if they do not take up too much space.

4. Conferences: Please e-mail information about any upcoming regional conferences if you would like me to include that information in the newsletter.

The DEADLINE is September 15, 2007. (Earlier e-mails are more than welcome!)

I've persuaded my husband to go see the latest Harry Potter movie with me this afternoon, so pardon me for having Harry on the brain (and no, I haven't read the last book yet; I was traveling all summer, so I had my copy mailed to my son and daughter-in-law; I won't get it until I drive to Chicago to visit them next month). But I know a lot of you have thought about ways to bring a little wizardry into your classes this fall. Here are a couple of things you might enjoy:

U. of Memphis Professor Andrew McClurg's website of legal humor, which is presently displaying a column he wrote for the ABA Journal a few years ago: Hogwarts Torts (hurry to read this one, as he rotates the content every month).

A job notice from Temple University, James E. Beasley School of Law announces that the school is expanding its legal writing faculty and seeking applicants for non-tenure-track positions in its directorless program. To apply, send a resume to Professor Alice G. Abreu, Chair, Faculty Selection and Recruitment Committee, Temple University Beasley School of Law, 1719 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122.E-mail: lawfsc@temple.edu; fax: 215-204-2008. If you have questions about the positions or the program, contact Ellie Margolis at ellie.margolis@temple.edu.